Marion County RECORD

Life for Ryan Olsen is good. The 2007 Centre graduate has a good job, a wife, and owns a house in Wichita.
Blind since birth, except for the ability to see lights and shadows out of one eye, Olsen, 29, is living his own little slice of the American dream, in spite of his disability.

Few would expect to see poetry in motion in the midst of heaping piles of smelly trash unless they’ve watched Joe Vinduska handle a skid loader on the tipping floor of the county transfer station in Marion.
Tipping floor is waste management lingo for “dump your trash here so we can push it around.”

Whether a dog impounded by Marion police is a prohibited breed remains an open question, but a proposed modification to city ordinance doesn’t appear to address concerns voiced two weeks ago by the dog’s owner.
Allen Stapleford, whose dog was impounded by police weeks ago and has been living in the county with his mother since then, asked city council members two weeks ago to consider a dog’s temperament instead of its breed before banning it from the city.

County commissioners, before looking over applications for park and lake superintendent Thursday, discussed changing the job description.
Items they decided to review include whether the superintendent will have authority to arrest someone as the current job description reads, whether a bait shop and concession stand should be operated, additional bookkeeping requirement, sales tax reporting, and long-term hours of operation.

Customers who counted on Cardie Oil for fuel and propane will be working with a new dealer, but familiar faces, after a Missouri-based company recently bought those portions of the business.
Cardie Oil president Craig Settle said the sale of the company’s refined fuel and propane operations to MFA Oil, a farmer-based cooperative based in Columbia, Missouri, should result in improved service to customers.

Not one, not two, but three ag teachers from the county won awards at the Kansas Association of Agricultural Educators Conference in Topeka last week.
Centre’s Laura Klenda was awarded “Kansas-Association of Career and Technical Education Young Teacher of the Year”; Hillsboro’s Sonya Roberts was awarded “K-ACTE Teacher in Community Service”; and Marion’s Mark Meyer was awarded “Agriscience Teacher of the Year” and “K-ACTE Teacher of the Year.”

It was cheers and jeers Friday evening when emergency medical technician students took an electronic quiz with questions and answers displayed on a screen at the front of the room.
Kevin Shields, Adam Makovec, Bryce Naerebout, Kaycee Chermak, Evan Slater, and Brandy Hanson had seconds to answer multiple-choice questions on the screen by choosing the color-matched answer on their computer screen.

It’s not easy to let others help you when you’re used to being the one people call on for help, but that’s the situation where Hillsboro resident Randy Welch finds himself.
The 30-year truck driver and 8-year Hillsboro Fire Department veteran suffered a stroke last month while making a delivery in Woodburn, Oregon, and will never drive a truck again because of CDL requirements. Meanwhile, he waits for approval of his disability application to come through.

Individuals, organizations, and agencies who provide services to crime victims are eligible to be nominated for five awards through the attorney general’s victim services division.
Nominations are open in the following award categories:

Retired pastor Loyal Martin and his wife, Rosella, have a history of taking care of other people’s households while they go on vacation.
They babysat three Armenian cats in Washington, District of Columbia for a month, occupied a house in North Carolina, and oversaw kids in Fresno, California while their parents were away.

Old country music playing softly in the background and the clean smell of hair products in the air, Verna Mosiman sipped her tea as she prepared for another afternoon at Scissor Cottage.
While it may appear to be a typical hair salon to a passerby looking in on the 100 block of E. 2nd St. in Peabody, this little shop is much more for people of all generations.

Antonia Baxa, 4, and Evelyn Baxa, 1, have already read their first 100 books in a Marion Library program called, “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten.”
The girls, daughters of Tim and Amanda Baxa, got backpacks to mark reaching the 100-book milestone. They also got a railroad car added to a chart showing the progress of each of the 25 enrolled children.

Retired marketing manager Jeaneen Lee Brose, 84, died Jan. 15, 2018, in Colorado Springs.
Born July 8, 1933, to John and Ruth (O’Brien) Brose in Peabody, the family moved back to Marion the next year. She attended Bown-Corby School and graduated from Marion High School in 1951. After attending Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia, she moved to Wichita, where she was employed by Southwestern Bell. She transferred to Mountain Bell in Colorado Springs in 1981, and retired as a marketing manager for U.S. West in 1988.

Some homeowners enjoy decorating with deep colors and different patterns. And then, there are the wild ones, or better wildlife ones, that go for the unusual, such as a raccoon eating crackerjacks or the head and neck of a giraffe to mount on the wall.
Some have trophy rooms to show off game they have hunted themselves, while others may be looking for a novelty piece that can be purchased directly for decoration purposes.

While National FFA Week is coming up, there’s no reason to wait to celebrate yet another set of feathers in the cap of county agriculture.
Word comes to us this week that three of our high school ag teachers — Mark Meyer of Marion, Sonya Roberts of Hillsboro, and Laura Klenda of Centre — were honored by their peers Saturday at the Kansas Association of Agricultural Educators symposium in Lawrence.

Florence United Methodist Church will have a service for healing and wholeness at 7 p.m. Feb. 7.
The service is open to all. Attendees can ask prayers for themselves or others.

Marion County Early Intervention Services will sponsor a free screening for children birth through 5 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 13 in Peabody.
The screening will include cognitive, motor, speech and language, and social and emotional development. Vision and hearing will also be checked. Screenings typically take one hour to complete. Appointments can be made by calling (620) 382-2858.

Piano nocturnes by composer Frédéric Chopin will be featured in a Tabor College faculty recital at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Richert Auditorium at the Shari Flaming Center for the Arts.
Professor and director of keyboard studies Sheila Litke will play Chopin’s nocturnes, which are romantic character pieces for piano that have a relaxed or melancholy sound.

Harvey-Marion County CDDO board of directors will meet at 4 p.m. Monday at 500 N. Main St., Suite 204, in Newton. The meeting, rescheduled from Jan. 22 due to weather, will open with a public forum.

SENIOR CENTER:

MEMORIES:

What a difference a year makes.
Riding big games by Chase Stringer and Sam Zinn, the Marion boys’ basketball team erased the sting of last season’s 64-38 road loss to Council Grove by thumping the Braves 61-52 Thursday at the Sports and Aquatics Center.

With the regular season winding down, the Marion High School wrestling team competed in arguably one of its toughest tournaments of the year Friday at the Hoisington Cardinal Classic.
Behind a pair of first-place finishes, the Warriors took fourth out of 10 competing schools.

Spirit Days this week at Centre High School will culminate with coronation of homecoming royalty Friday at halftime of the boys basketball game against Goessel.
King candidates are: Cody Svoboda, son of Anita and Steve Svoboda, Lincolnville; Cole Srajer, son of Kris and Jim Srajer, Tampa; and Zach Barney, son of Gene and Denise Barney, Tampa.

After a short break, the Warrior basketball teams returned to the court Tuesday night with a stiff road test at Moundridge.
In girls’ action, the Warriors struggled to get production from anyone but Kourtney Hansen and Alli Molleker all night, trailing at the end of three quarters. However, Courtney Herzet saved the game, with the Warriors outscoring the Wildcats 12-7 the final frame. Herzet’s game-winning layup just beat the buzzer for a dramatic 37-36 win. Hansen finished with a team-high 17 points.

Six Marion High students tested their mettle Thursday against the brightest minds in the Heart of America League and came away with a third consecutive league championship.
The team of seniors Kyle Pierce, Colin Williams, Corbin Wheeler, and Caleb Hett, and juniors Hap Waddell and Kimmie Duncan scored seven wins against just two losses in nine matches. Williams scored a team-leading 270 points.